BEAT lineup (L to R): Tony Levin, Steve Vai, Adrian Belew, Danny Carey
If you’re a fan of rock music or just extraordinary talented musicians in general, the names Adrian Belew, Tony Levin, Steve Vai, or Danny Carey alone are enough to grab your attention. But finding out that not only are they are all in a band together, but that they’re doing a short tour that includes a stop in Louisville, and I believe the phrase “HOLY SHIT!” best describes the appropriate reaction.
Indeed, former King Crimson members Adrian Belew, (vocals, guitar) and Tony Levin, (bass, Chapman Stick, synthesizers) have teamed up with guitar virtuoso Steve Vai and legendary Tool drummer Danny Carey to form BEAT, a creative reinterpretation of the three iconic 1980s King Crimson albums - Discipline (1981), Beat (1982), and Three of a Perfect Pair (1984).
BEAT’s Tony Levin is literally one of the greatest bassists of all time. In addition to his time in King Crimson, (of which he was a member of off and on from 1981 until their end in 2021), he’s also played on every Peter Gabriel record and continues to tour with him to this day, as well as record and tour with supergroups Liquid Tension Experiment Stick Men, and with his brother Pete in The Levin Brothers. As a session musician, he’s played on over 500 albums over the past 50 years for the likes of John Lennon, David Bowie, Paul Simon, Cher, Stevie Nicks, Pink Floyd, Tom Waits, Lou Reed, Alice Cooper, Buddy Rich, Judy Collins, and many, many more. The amount of hit songs he’s played on is absolutely staggering. He’s also released eight solo albums, (including his latest, Bringing It Down to the Bass, which was just released in September), is a pioneer of the musical instrument The Chapman Stick, and has published five books. So when LEO was offered the opportunity to speak with the legend himself over Zoom prior to their December 10th show at the Brown Theatre in Louisville, we absolutely jumped at the chance! Here’s what the legend had to say:
Tony Levin. PhotoCredit: Jon R. Luini
(This interview has been edited for length and clarity)
How did the BEAT line up come about?
Tony Levin: I think that story is Adrian Belew’s. From what I've heard him say many times; about five years ago, he got the hankering to do the music of 80’s of King Crimson again. But COVID lockdown came around, and then when you put together a band of guys who are busy with other things, you have to deal with the schedule of their bands. So it took all this time to assemble the plan. Part of the joy of our shows is the relief that it's finally happening. We're super happy to be out touring.
You all aren’t doing all three 80’s King Crimson albums in their entirety, so how did you all decide on what songs to play?
We started by choosing all of them; three albums worth, and the guys started practicing them on their own quite a while ago. And then as we started practicing together, we honed it down just a little bit and cut out a few songs. Our rehearsal period at the end of August and beginning of September was originally going to be two weeks, which is more than sufficient for players like this who did their homework and did their practicing. But we decided to add another week of rehearsing to get tighter as a band - and to make it really a band, not just musicians getting together to play this music. At this point in the tour we've done 40 or 50 shows, so we are certainly a band and we have our own style. But we wanted to be sure from the first show to be able to present a coherent band that has a direction, and also to get a sense of how far to veer from the originals because our ambition here is not to play the originals exactly as they are, but to add our own personality. And I feel like we're doing that very well.
BEAT live on stage. PhotoCredit: Jon R. Luini
I noticed that the only non-80’s song in the set is “Red,” which was written and recorded before yourself or Adrian Belew joined King Crimson. What was behind bringing that song into the set list?
We could have done 10 songs that weren't from the 80s, but Adrian decided kind of at the last minute before the first show that we should do it as a thank you and tribute to Robert Fripp and Bill Bruford, who co-wrote and were there for all of the material we’re doing. So it’s kind of a tip of the hat and a nod to them.
It’s been seven years since your last solo studio album, which I know was due to your touring schedule. How were you finally able to find time to get the songs on your new album,Bringing It Down to the Bass, together and recorded?
I had to carve out the time because, as you said, I'm touring a lot. I'm really lucky and happy to be touring, that's what I love to do. And in the times between, I’m always writing material. But a few years ago I realized that if I don't carve out some time, I will never release these pieces. I had a great number of pieces, maybe 30 to choose from, but I had to finish them up to get to the “Who is the ideal guitar player to play on this piece? Who's the drummer I would most love to hear on this?” So I carved out two months for that, turned down touring last April and May, and finished up the album. I feel very good about it, and the thing I feel best about is those two months where I added the other players. I'm happy with my compositions, but I feel like it features some great playing by other musicians than me on it. And when I listen to the music now, that's what gets me excited about it.
I think what grabbed my attention most on the album were the completely unexpected barbershop quartet songs “Side B” and “On The Drums”.
Maybe one could say they don't belong on the album, but it's my album and in a number of ways I decided to break my own rules. Generally when you make an album, you try to stick to one genre. This is an album about the bass that is accompanied, by the way, with my special photo portraits of the basses I use and some little stories about them. So you don't just throw a vocal in there that's got no bass and no instruments and no drums. But for a long time I’ve had this poem called “Side B / Turn It Over” about the experience some of us remember of getting up and turning over an album. Even though I could have made that into a song and put instruments on it, I thought barbershop quartet is one of my favorite genres, so I'll just leave it like that. Well, I did a little bass solo in the middle, but pretty much it's a barbershop quartet, because why not?
The other piece, “On The Drums.” OK, let's go back to the lockdown year when musicians like me suddenly had no gigs and were going a little bit crazy like everybody else. Among other things that I did, I took it in my head to write a vocal song only using only the names of drummers I had played with, which is a lot of drummers. I spent some time on the internet researching who I had even played with on records because I've been around a long time. So I had a whole bunch of names, and it wasn't easy because these drummers’ names don’t rhyme or anything like that, so I had to kind of fashion different section segments almost in a classical way that musically made sense, and I felt good about the way it came out. I didn't do it with any purpose in mind. It wasn't like, “Hey, this will be on my album.” But then as I was sorting out which pieces will be on this album, I thought well, even though it's about the bass, it deserves to have a tribute or some kind of thank you to the some of the many drummers that I’ve played with. Bass players are influenced a lot by the drummers we play with, and so these names are people who had a big influence on me musically. It goes a lot of strange places, but up until the last few words, it only uses the names of drummers. That was not easy, but it was fun.
Tony Levin. PhotoCredit: Jon R. Luini
The poem that makes up the vocals for track “Fire Cross The Sky” is read in English on the new album, but you also released a single version that is read entirely in Italian. What made you decide to read it both ways, and how did you learn to speak Italian so well?
Well, I'll answer the last part first. I speak Italian okay because I've toured a lot in Italy, including with Italian artists. It's one of my very favorite places to play. Through the years, especially in 1990 I think it was, I toured about six months there with an Italian band. Everybody was speaking Italian and I picked up quite a bit. So that was just why not? And it's not that way on the record, it was just for streaming services. And the piece, I don't mention John Lennon in it, but it's obviously about him. It was a poem that a few years later became kind of a piece, but not a song piece. I do recite it, but I came up with a part on the Chapman Stick that seemed to suit it really well and it felt right. The Chapman Stick, for those who don't know, is kind of a bass-like instrument. Mine has twelve strings, but there are six bass strings and six guitar strings, and it's played with a hammer-on technique. So in essence, you're kind of playing a guitar and a bass. So I often play it as a bass, as I am on the tour I'm on, but sometimes it can be sort of an unusual guitar sound, which seemed appropriate for that poem.
You've been doing photography for years, including publishing some books. I’m guessing that it is as much of a passion for you as music? How did that come about?
It is, and you know what? It's been so long that I don't remember how it came about. But at some point in the 70s, I started having fun taking pictures while I was on stage and trying to refine that just for the fun of it. Then I got a website in the early 90s and I started sharing these pictures in what I still call “The Road Diary,” and I found that audiences really like not only seeing what it’s like backstage, but seeing themselves the way they look to us on stage. I love to take pictures of the audience when I can during the show, specifically to let them see how inspiring they are to us on stage. The audience and the venue are an integral part of the way the music goes that night. None of us knows what the magic is or what the formula is that makes one show better than another, but the audience is for sure part of it, and I'm very gratified to share that with them. On an average day I take 130 pictures or so and I weed it down late at night on the bus, and in the morning I weed it down to 30 and then get them up on the on the web diary. It keeps me out of trouble. I'm not going out partying after the show; I'm partying with Photoshop, [laughs].
Final question, what can we expect when you all play live?
Well, you're going to see a bunch of excellent players, myself excluded, [laughs]. You're going to see 3 great players and the bass player hanging, sweating, and trying to keep up with these great guys. And you're going to see musicians who are really having fun and playing, I like to think, at the top of their game. This music is technically pretty difficult and has a lot of challenges, but we not only embrace that, we're having fun doing it.
BEAT plays The Brown Theatre in Louisville on Tuesday, December 10th at 7:30 pm. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit beat-tour.com. For more information on Tony Levin, visit tonylevin.com.
